Second clinic opens for uninsured

North Side location offers alternative to more-expensive ERs.

By Don Finleydfinley@express-news.net

Updated 11:56 pm, Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Photo: TOM REEL, Tom Reel/Express-News

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Staff physician Dr. Vanessa Smeberg (second from right) talks with Dominick Young in one of the treatment rooms while medical assistant Rosalinda Cruz prepares a thermometer at Faith Family Clinic’s new location next to Northeast Baptist Hospital.

Staff physician Dr. Vanessa Smeberg (second from right) talks with Dominick Young in one of the treatment rooms while medical assistant Rosalinda Cruz prepares a thermometer at Faith Family Clinic’s new

Brenda Fierros (from left), Patricia Reed, Rosalinda Cruz and Rene Arceneaux gather around the reception area of the new Faith Family Clinic.

Brenda Fierros (from left), Patricia Reed, Rosalinda Cruz and Rene Arceneaux gather around the reception area of the new Faith Family Clinic.

Photo: TOM REEL, Tom Reel/Express-News

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Dr. Fernando Guerra, former director of the Metropolitan Health Department, speaks at the clinic opening as clinic Executive Director Jim Young looks on.

Dr. Fernando Guerra, former director of the Metropolitan Health Department, speaks at the clinic opening as clinic Executive Director Jim Young looks on.

Photo: TOM REEL, Tom Reel/Express-News

Second clinic opens for uninsured

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A bit more than a year after it opened, a little West Side clinic staffed mostly by volunteer doctors and offering low-cost medical care to the working poor and their families has opened a second location, this one on the North Side.

Faith Family Clinic quietly opened its second clinic in December in a medical office building next to Northeast Baptist Hospital, at 8711 Village Drive. The expansion was funded by the Baptist Health System, which hopes to offer uninsured patients an alternative to its hospital emergency room.

“A lot of folks access health care at the most expensive point, and it's not efficient in terms of getting a relationship with a family care physician,” said Graham Reeve, president of the Baptist system. “We don't want people coming to the emergency room with minor problems. Unfortunately, that's the only avenue they have. So this we hope gives them another avenue.”

Faith Family Clinic was the brainchild of Charlie Martin, chairman of Nashville-based Vanguard Health Systems, which owns the Baptist system in San Antonio. Martin started a similar clinic in Nashville and donated $100,000 to open the first clinic here in November 2009.

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At a ceremony marking the opening of the North Side location Wednesday, executive director Jim Young said the clinics continue to run on a modest budget of $800,000 a year for both locations, although financial and volunteer support has grown to include other hospitals, universities and churches. “Many churches take mission trips to Mexico and Haiti and South America and all over the world,” Young said. “And that's great. But there's really not another place where they can do it locally and serve in their own backyard for people in just as much need.”

The clinic limits its services to working families without insurance, although that has included lawyers, nurses and other professionals unable to find affordable private insurance. They pay $20 to $50 per visit, depending on family size and income. The clinic has a small network of specialists willing to take referrals at a discount and is trying to increase the size of that network.

Robert Campos, a part-time minister who lost his job as chief operating officer of a local company, has been bringing his family to the clinic for months.

“My blood pressure when I first came here was 185/99, which was very high. This morning I checked it, and I'm at 116/63,” Campos said, adding that the clinic helped him find low-cost medicines.

Dr. Vanessa Smeberg, a staff physician at the West Side clinic on Zarzamora, said she started working there after hearing a presentation at Bandera Road Community Church, where she is a member.

“Not only do we attend to their medical care, but also if there are any emotional or spiritual needs that need to be met, we point them in the right direction,” Smeberg said.

Dr. Fernando Guerra, who recently retired as director of the Metropolitan Health District, said the area served by the new clinic has plenty of uninsured people with unmet medical needs.